A little feast, a little famine – the Fast Diet might be the weight-loss plan you've always wished for, but never thought could work.

Fans say it's as easy as this: On two non-consecutive days of the week, you limit your calorie intake to a fraction of what you're used to (500 for women, 600 for men). On the five other days, the world is your oyster – or lasagna, or steak and potatoes.

This 5:2 approach to the trend of intermittent fasting was developed by Dr. Michael Mosley, a British journalist and physician, during research for a BBC science series on life extension. Mosley, the U.K.'s answer to CNN's Sanjay Gupta, has presented a variety of health-related programs on British television. He stumbled onto the idea of calorie restriction, which led to a period of self-experimentation that was documented on the BBC's "Eat, Fast, Live Longer" special last summer. In a few months of the 5:2 diet, Mosley had lost 14 pounds and 25 percent of his body fat.

"It's a reverse 'Supersize Me,'" Mosley said, in reference to the 2004 documentary on fast food by Morgan Spurlock.

The program is the first of a three-episode, health-centric series that premieres at 10 p.m. Wednesday on WNET/nChannel 13..

"You have to have the courage of your convictions to give it a go," said Mosley of the experiment.

His findings, combined with food journalist Mimi Spencer's recommendations, are also detailed in their best-selling book, "The Fast Diet: Lose Weight, stay Healthy and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting."

Despite the public's response to The Fast Diet, some experts question the long-term success of a plan that's still relatively new.

Mosley's goal to find the most effective fasting diet sent him on a Goldilocks adventure of sorts: a four-day fast wasn't sustainable for the long-term, and an alternate day fast cramped his social life. It was Dr. Mark Mattson from the National Institute on Aging in Maryland, and his theory on hormesis that ultimately led Mosley to a balance of fasting and eating normally that felt just right.

Hormesis, Mosley writes in "The Fast Diet," is "the idea that when a human … is exposed to a stress or toxin, it can toughen them up."

So, much like exercise causes small tears in muscles that eventually make them stronger, short periods of fasting can also do a body good, Mosley claims. Evidence from his research suggests that this form of dieting can not only help with weight loss, but can also turn on "repair genes" that reduce the risk for heart disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer.

In other words, according to Mosley, it's OK to be hungry for a little while.

"Your body needs periods of time when you're not eating," he said. "It's during the times you're not that your body gets on with the spring cleaning. Six to eight hours of not eating isn't a bad thing every so often."

Contrary to advice found in countless resources, Mosley added that light snacking throughout the day is not the best way to control appetite.

"There's been a belief that when you get hungry, you'll eat terrible things," Mosley said. "But you can go for a walk and you may discover that it passes. A lot of people discover that what they thought is hunger, isn't."

Through conditioning developed from the fasting, Mosley also found that people are less likely to binge on "normal" eating days.

It sounds too good to be true, Mosley admits. But he invites skeptics to take a look at the data from his experiments and other research on similar styles of intermittent fasting.